Before I Die Alone
by Nightingale sama
Summary: This is the story of Takara Yuzuki as she tries to fit into a village that doesn't take to kindly to outsiders. The only thing that keeps her going is her friend's promise of coming back for her as her world crumbles around her.


**Before I Die Alone**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!**

**CHAPTER 1 ****– Meeting the team**

It was the day after the academe exam. An event to be celebrated, to find out who your new teammates would be, a time of beginnings, an immature view on the world that they would face, it was then that Takara was woken from sleep by AMBU black ops. The AMBU, a cat masked one, told her to report to the Hokage immediately. Then the AMBU left as silently and deadly as the AMBU are known for.

Takara jumped out of bed, quickly throwing on a pair of black spandex shorts and a tight nit black mesh top. As she skidded to the bathroom she picked up her white pullover and shrugged it on as she brushed her teeth. She ran a brush through her elbow length white hair and splashed water on her face before she put on her black nin boots as she locked up her apartment. She ran along the roof tops toward the Hokage tower. She noted with frustration that the sun wasn't even up yet.

To say Takara was surprised was an understatement. Sarutobi had asked her to join a genin team again. She told him, six months ago, that she never wanted on a team again. The reason for him wanting her on a team shocked her. Sakura Haruno, top Kunoichi of her class, died last week from a fatal injury when her home was invaded. Her parents had been on an outing, the home was assumed to be empty. The trespassers, amateur ninja, were surprised to see Haruno-chan and wounded her in a panic. She might have lived if her body had not been strained from continuous malnutrition. Her years of harmful dieting took its toll. Takara always admired smart Kunoichi, but to die because malnutrition weakened her body to the point it would not heal well, in a prosperous hidden village, even though terribly sad was also terribly stupid.

The Hokage wanted, practically pleaded, Takara to join the team Haruno-chan was supposed to be on. She knew why without him having to tell her that she was wanted instead of another of the teamless genin or a prodigy from a lower grade. The fact that the Sensei was Kakashi, someone who Takara knew suffered the same as her. The loss of a team can be a terrible thing, or so said her therapist. Also, how could she say no when the old man had such a pleading look in his eyes? Her mind tried to show her images of what happened the last time she had been on a team, but she shut down those thoughts immediately.

She said yes, knowing there was a good chance she would regret that decision.

* * *

Takara entered the academe classroom the Hokage sent her to, after retrieving her weapon pouch and placing it on her right thigh. The first thing she noticed was the seldom air. They, as a group, still mourned Haruno-chan. Her eyes searched over the class of Genin briefly. She fiddled her forehead protector, which hung around her neck on black fabric. It was a nervous habit.

"Takara-kun," Iruka-sensei said bringing Takara's attention to him. Takara smiled, she hadn't seen him since she graduated a year ago. "Nice to see you again, if you could sit down, I was just about to announce the Genin teams." So, he had been informed prier to me agreeing, Takara thought.

Bowing her head slightly she made her way up the stairs and sat down next to a blond kid as the teams were listed off.

Iruka listed off the rest of the teams, and the moment he finished, the blond kid, Naruto, decided to voice his disagreement. Takara just leaned back and made a few braids at the nape of her neck. There was always someone who protested. Her own teammate-no she refused to think about it.

"Iruka-sensei why is a top student like me, paired off in the same group with this guy?" He shouted, his finger jutting out and jabbing at the moody kid, Sasuke, who sat on the blond kid's other side.

Iruka gave Naruto an inquisitive look before he explained, "Sasuke graduated with the best scores in the class. Naruto, you graduated with the worst. This happened because we wanted to evenly divide the abilities of the groups."

"Don't pull my leg, Dobe," Sasuke insulted from his seat, not once giving Naruto a glance.

Naruto snarled, "Teme, what did you just call me?"

Takara shook her head at Naruto's and Sasuke's attitude. Iruka left and they waited as the instructors came by and grabbed their Genin teams and left.

"You better not be as weak and worthless as the dobe here or else," the Uchiha stated while glaring at Takara mere minutes after the room emptied.

Takara narrowed her eyes, not even bothering to look at him. "That superior attitude of yours will become your downfall if you don't fix it." She hated his type, always thinking themselves better than anyone else due to their kekkei genkai or their academe marks. Before he could say anything she interrupted him, "and underestimating someone will surely get you killed."

The Uchiha glared at her and just as he was going to shout out some form of insult the door to the classroom opened. In stepped the copy ninja who has apparently copied over a thousand jutus. She had only ever heard about this guy in passing and reference to her situation.

"You're late," the Uzimaki kid said flatly.

It must have sunk in that the girl they are mourning would have been their teammate instead of a complete stranger, Takara thought.

The instructor glanced at each of them in turn and simply jumped out the window after saying to meet him on the roof. The guys looked at each other oddly and walked out the class presumably toward the stairs. Takara simply used a displacement jutsu, when they left, to bring her to the roof. The boys where a bit surprised by her beating them there, she smirked at that.

"Let's see, why don't you introduce yourselves?" Kakashi suggested when the boys sat down. Did all Sensei's do this, Takara wondered, remembering her own Sensei asking the same question.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Like," he paused, thinking. "What do you like or hate. What are your dreams and hobbies, you know something like that?"

"Why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei," Naruto suggested.

"Me? I'm Kakashi Hatake, I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dreams," he shrugged. "I have a few hobbies." Another shrug, "Now it's your turn," Kakashi said.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen. I hate the three minutes I have to wait to boil up the ramen. My dream is to become greater than all of the Hokage's." This didn't make much sense to Takara, she heard that the Uzumaki kid was hyper and loud, not sad and monotone. Damn, Takara thought, the kid must have been hit hard by the girl's death.

Kakashi nodded his head before it was Takara's turn to speak.

"I'm Tarkara Yuzuki. My likes are training, animals and reading. My dislikes are arrogant assholes." Takara made a point of looking at Sasuke with a glare. He really had gotten on her nerves "My hobby is perfecting my kekkei genkai." She smirked as Sasuke tensed beside her. "Also, I have a goal find and thank the person who saved my life ten years ago; along with making sure I never lose a loved one again."

Kakashi was silent for moment thinking about his own loved ones he's lost, while Naruto just stared at her thinking about Sakura-chan. Kakashi then gestured to Sasuke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are many things I hate and not a lot I like. Also, I have an ambition that I have no intention to leave as a dream; the revival of my clan and to," he paused in a moment of utter hate. "Kill a certain man."

"Pulling that stick out of your ass might help your attitude." She couldn't resist, she really couldn't. Takara just knew his reaction would be hateful. The Uchiha glared hard in return, while Takara sported a cheeky grin as she stood up. Angered by what he took as her arrogance, the Uchiha threw a right hook to her face in hope to take the smile off her face.

The girl blocked with her own arm, but unlike him she added a little of her lightning under her skin to give him a nasty shock. He froze up just before falling back onto his seat with look of surprise. Not so weak now eh, she thought. "It will be hard to kill a man if you can't even control your anger." She whispered in the Uchiha's ear. "How about making your first ambition; too get strong enough to school your emotions." Looking at Kakashi she smiled kindly at his shocked looking eye. "Which training grounds and at what time?" she asked, already knowing that each Sensei tested their teams before taking them on.

Once he answered her she disappeared in a swirl of orange flower petals.

* * *

That evening she couldn't stop the nightmares from coming. Out on her balcony she watched the stars until the sun rose.

Kakashi was shocked when he found Takara was staring at the memorial. She held a very heartbreaking look in her eyes. He knew that look; he himself shared it with her in silence as the sun broke through the trees.

She arrived at the training ground, having not eaten upon Kakashi's request that morning. Kakashi was late. He needed more time with the stone Takara believed. The boys hated it. Which irked Takara, didn't they know that a Ninja has to be patient?

Kakashi showed up, stated the rules, time limits and such to the three Genin and then he told them to start. Sadly before Takara could say anything, Naruto and Sasuke were gone.

Takara sighed, shaking her head she asked, "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Takara?"

"Was your team this hasty when you first started?"

She lurched into the trees before he could answer. She hid herself behind a collection of leaves and sat down, watching as Kakashi pulled out a little orange book. Though he didn't seem to be reading it as he withdrew into himself in thought, it was then that Naruto took charge.

Naruto recklessly swung his leg at their new Sensei, Kakashi dodged with ease. Naruto swung once again at Kakashi and clumsily lost his balance and the next thing he knew Kakashi was behind him. Takara quirked an eyebrow at this, did the kid really think he could beat Kakashi like that?

"You're too late;" Kakashi said a bit spookily. "Hidden village of Konoha's secret taijustu master art," Kakashi's hand prodded forward. The girl craned her head to get a better look thinking she would see a cool new jutus. "A thousand years of pain!"

Naruto squawked and pitched into the air, only to fall into the pond. Takara then began to shake with laughter realizing it was more of a prank than an actual, harmful jutus.

Her laughter drew Kakashi to look in her direction. Takara was still clutching her sides when she jumped down off her purch, knowing he had spotted her.

Kakashi gave her an uncertain look. "It's not nice to laugh at your team mates."

Sobering up immediately she said, "Not much of a team now are we?" she shook her head, chuckling a bit, before disappearing in a swirl of petals.

Takara got herself as far away as she could from Kakashi. She was just walking around with her hands in her deep blue pullover when she heard Naruto cry out. She immediately went toward his voice. She found him dangling like a fish from a tree, just flopping around. He seemed to refuse her help as he stayed quiet while trying to untie himself. As she jumped into the trees again Takara threw a Kunai at the rope. Naruto dropped with a thump. She could barely hold back a laugh. She hadn't had much fun in a while.

"Takara, I'm behind you." Takara shrieked in surprise. She whirled around. Already she was scolding herself for being so unobservant. "Damn Kakashi-sensei! You nearly gave me a heart attack."

He tilted his head, silently asking what she would do now.

"I know you would be able to sense me no matter what I do," the girl snorted. "So what's the point in concentrating on hiding any longer?"

Just as she finished saying that, he held his hands in the familiar hand sign. She knew she was in a genjustu as leaves fell everywhere around her, disguising her view momentarily. When the leaves vanished, she was in the center of the clearing. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

Takara sighed when she noticed Sasuke infront of her bleeding out.

"I saw that hand sign! Just because I'm a genin, does not mean I can't tell a genjustu from reality!"

Takara was back on her tree branch and Kakashi was gone. At least he released the genjustu, she mused.

Alright, it's about time I get serious, she thought, scowling. She glanced around. Time to find Sasuke-poo and Naruto. Takara snickered at the nickname she made for the Uchiha brat.

She launched off from the branch, dropping down to the next one. She shortly found herself staring at the back of Sasuke.

"Duck-Ass," Takara whispered, barely able to keep a straight face at the look on his as he whipped his head around. "Come here."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you doing?" He hissed. Bad kitty, she thought.

"We need to work together," Takara said. "All of us and that Includes Naruto. You do realize this is a test to measure out how well we work together, right?"

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke snapped. He had no idea about the test being more than a fight for the silly bells.

Repressing the urge to roll her eyes was hard. "Come on, it's so obvious." She groaned. "Why do you really think there are only two bells? It's to see if we turn against each other for our own personal benefit instead of working together. When you're on a team mission, you have to work together and overcome your selfishness. Don't tell me you didn't figure it out? When I passed my previous sensei's test I had figured it out a lot sooner than this."

"Hn," Sasuke narrowed his eyes further. "And what exactly is your great plan?"

"First, we need Naruto," she said. "So do you mind helping me look for him?"

"Hn," That is going to get annoying real soon, Takara thought. "The Dobe is over there."

He gestured to the west side of the forest and she nodded her head before lurching away from him. He followed close behind. Eventually they did find Naruto, and she explained to him what was going on. He took it in strides, but he didn't like the fact he was working with Sasuke. Takara could tell that the feeling was mutual with Sasuke, but they both agreed to the plan.

* * *

"Oi, Kakashi! You ready to admit defeat?" Naruto entered the clearing, grinning like mad.

"Hmm?" Kakashi barely lifted his eyes off the pages of his treasured book.

"I, Naruto Uzamaki am going to kick your ass!" Naruto bellowed, charging forward.

Kakashi merely tilted his head slightly, eyeing the energetic blonde.

Naruto held up his hands in the familiar sign for Shadow Clones. "Multi-Shadow-Clone Justu!"

Multiple more Naruto's came into existence, rushing towards Kakashi. Takara, hidden behind some leaves, was shocked that Naruto could make those types of clones. They, as far as she knew, were a forbidden jutsu due to the large amount of chakra they took to perform. He can do a better distraction than I thought, Takara smirked.

Kakashi sighed taking a step back. That was when a hand shot up from the ground, barely missing Kakashi's foot.

Had it not been for Kakashi's superior reaction time and speed, the hand just might have grasped him. Kakashi just jumped up into the air.

At the same time one of the Naruto's clones hurled another Naruto into the air. Then the other clones took Takara's advice about having a distraction where Kakashi would have to focus on Naruto and threw a few more at Kakashi in hopes that would work.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly. He twisted his body to dodge the first round of Naruto's, but that was when Sasuke came further out of the ground and zeroed in on Kakashi, bringing his leg up to kick him.

Kakashi grabbed Sasuke's leg blocking him, Sasuke swung his fist as a retaliaction. Kakashi blocked it just as easily but he was too late as he felt something brush against his pocket.

Kakashi quickly released his chakra to substitute but not before one of the bells was grabbed by Takara, she was faster than he thought. Kakashi was substituted with a block of wood.

Takara and Sasuke fell to the ground, both spinning to land properly. Naruto rushed over to greet them, after dispelling his clones, smiling so much Takara thought his face might crack.

The Yuzuki held up the bell simply. "Now that was teamwork."

She rung the bell sharply and Kakashi reappeared next to his students like a well-trained dog. "Well, well, great job Takara. It looks like you're the only one who passed. I suppose you're the only one who-"

Takara snorted unattractively, cutting Kakashi off. "Naruto and Sasuke also pass Sensei."

"I'm sorry; I thought I made the rules clear-"

"All three of us worked together as a team."

"But only one of you got the bell." He pointed out.

"True," Takara granted. At this Sasuke shot her a lethal glare and Naruto looked sickened. She continued with a shrug, "So we all pass since all three of us worked as a team, we worked as one." Kakashi stared at the Yuzuki, and she watched his one eye widened a tad.

"All of you pass." Kakashi stated.

Naruto cheered. "Yatta! We did it!"

Takara laughed at Naruto's enthusiasm. Sasuke simply smirked. Maybe this won't be so bad, Takara thought.


End file.
